Turbine water-wheel.



No. 642,097. Patented Jan. 30, 1900'.

J. T. FANNING.

TURBINE WATER WHEEL.

(Application filed July 31. 1899.

(N0 Model.)

INVEN TOR,

JOHN T FANNING.

Nrrhn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN T. FANNING, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

TURBINE WATER-WHEEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 642,097, dated January 30, 1900. Application filed July 31,1899- Serial No. 725,569. (No model.)

To all 20720112, it n'my concern:

Be itknown that 1, JOHN T. FANNING a citizen of the United States, residing at the city of Minneapolis, in the county of Hennepin and State of Minnesota, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Turbine \Vater- \Vheels, of which the following is a specification.

Myiuvention relates to an improvement in turbine water wheels by which they are grouped on a vertical shaft common to all of them; and the objects of my improvement are to give to the vertical shaft the combined power of two or more water-wheels without the aid of gears or belts and to secure by aid of draft-tubes the maximum of efliciency of such grouped water-wheels by utilizing the pressure of the full head of water on each, while two or more or all the runners are placed above the ordinary level of low water in the wheel-pit, and, further, to economize floorspace and economize in cost of foundations and supports for the turbine wheels, wheelcase, and shaft; and, further, a grouping of the turbine wheels on a vertical shaft is particularly useful for the elevation and protection of the machinery to be driven by said shaft when the tail-water is subject to rises by floods that are great relative to the ordinary whole head of water.

The accompanying drawingis an elevation, partly in section, of a series of turbine wheels embodying my invention, the several parts being indicated by reference-letters.

O is a metallic cylinder withheads, forming a pressure-chamber, standing vertically and adapted to receive, by means of the feederpipe 0, the water which reaches and drives each of the turbines under the full pressure due to the head.

A, A, and A are the horizontal turbine wheels, sometimes designated as the runners.

a, a, and a are the respective wheel-cases, having independent gates and containing proper guides for directing the water from the chamber 0 into the respective runners. W'ater passing through the runners is discharged into the draft-chambers a: a and drafttubes D (Z.

D (Z are air-tight draft-tubes connected to the draft-chambers of the wheel-cases and extend at their lower ends into the tail-water w.

B is the vertical wheel-shaft to which the two or more turbine wheels are attached and which transmits the combined power of its several runners to the shaft of the machine to be driven.

B is the shaft which receives from B the power of two or more of the turbine wheels attached thereto and may be the shaft of the driven machine.

Each wheel or each pairof wheels is usually given an independent bearing, and each is so arranged that it can independently or in combination drive the common shaft B, according as it is connected to or disconnected therefrom.

In the drawing the turbine A is shown attached to a sleeve-shaft s, which surrounds the shaft B. The sleeve 8 extends upward through the wheelbase a and through the top of the pressure-chamber O. The sleeve is upset near its upper end, and a sufficient number of collars are formed near its upper end to constitute a suitable bearing to sup port the turbine wheel A These collars upon the sleeve rest in a split collar-bearing f, and the beariugf is supported by two steel beams g g or otherwise, as circumstances require. Upon the upper end of the sleeve 8 and attached thereto is one half of a strong clutchcoupling h of suitable design, and upon the shaft B is the other half h of the clutchcoupling fitting into 7b. The half-coupling h slides upon a feather in B and is readily slid down into or up out of mesh with its mate h. When the half-coupling h is slid out of mesh with its mate h, the turbine .A is disconnected from the shaft B and is supported by its independent collar-bearing f and may remain at rest while the shaft B is being driven by the turbines A and A. When the half-coupling h is in mesh with its mate 7L, the turbine A is securely connected to the shaft B, and the turbine A may then perform its portion of the work of driving the shaft B. Similar means may be employed for connecting either or both of the other wheels A and A to the shaft 13.

It is usually desirable to place the superposed turbines and driven machine or machines as nearly together in vertical distance as possible and at the same time to arrange for the easy removal of any one or any pair of turbines without disturbing the shafts or cases of the other turbines.

To facilitate the removal of a separate section of shaft and its turbine and to permit such section and turbine to belifted and tilted for convenient withdrawal from its case, a short portion of each section of shaft is constructed as a flanged thimble or hollow flanged shaft b and is placed between shaft-couplings outside of the turbine-cases and can be easily removed. suitable length and replace an equal length of solid shaft. When the flanges on the thimble are bolted to the flange-couplings on the solid shaft, the thimble 1) forms an integral, though removable, part of the shaft B.

A single and a pair of turbine wheels on a vertical shaft has been used, the turbines venting into the air instead of into draftchambers 00 m and draft-tubes D d, and such are not herein claimed.

Duplicate vertical turbine wheels discharging into the same draft-tube have been used on horizontal shafts, and such are not herein claimed. Experience has shown that in such cases the horizontal shaft should not for its most efficient service be placed at a height exceeding twenty feet above the level of the surface of the tail-water at the lowest stage of the river. When the shaft is at twenty feet above low surface of the tail-water and a flood raises the tail-water approximately twenty feet, the floor on which the machine rests and a portion of the driven machine are submerged and a higherrise may submerge the entire machine. On waterfalls of thirty or more feet in height, where the flood occasionally raises the tail-water twenty or more feet in height above its low-water surface, it is desirable to place the driven machine high enough so that it and the floor on which it rests shall be always above the level of the backwater of floods. It is also frequently desirable to make such machines of such capacity that it will require two or more turbine wheels on its direct vertical shaft to give the adequate power at the required speed of revolutions and without the intervention of gears or belts. The combination of mechanism shown in the accompanying drawing provides for such desirable elevation of the machine together with such reinforced power on its vertical shaft. The arrangement of the mechanism provides for placing two or more water-wheels on the same vertical shaft with no wheel at an elevation exceeding twenty feet above low-water level, and the arran gement of the draft-tubes permits each and every wheel to operate under the force of the full head of water.

The construction of a group of wheels on Such thimble b may be of any' the same vertical shaft all within a cylindrical vertical pressure-chamber permits the whole combination, including the driven machine, to be placed on a foundation of smaller area and less cost than when the shaft is placed horizontally with direct connection to the machine, and such construction economizes in size of building required for its inclosure and in the floor-space occupied by wheels and machine within their building.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination, of a plurality of inward-flow water-wheel cases and their contained independent turbine water wheels, said water-wheels being arranged upon a vertical shaft, common to all, and adapted to work in unison or separately, with a vertical, cy-

lindrical, metallic pressure-chamber inclosing said wheel-cases, common to all of them, and supplying water to each of said waterwheels independently,and with metallic drafttubes extending from said water-wheel cases through the wall of said metallic pressurechamber, all being arranged substantially as and for the purpose specified.

2. The combination, of a plurality of inward-flow water-wheel cases and their contained independent turbine water-wheels, said water-Wheels being arranged upon a vertical shaft, common to all, and adapted to work in unison or separately, with a pressure-chamberinclosing said wheel-cases, common to all of them, and supplying water to each of said water-wheels independently, and with draft-tubes extending from said water- 'Wheel cases through the wall of said pressurechamber, all being arranged substantially as and for the purpose specified.

3. The combination, of a plurality of in ward-flow water-wheel cases and independent turbine water-wheels contained therein, a vertical shaft common to all said wheels, and means for connecting said wheels separately with said shaft, with a pressure-chamber inclosing said wheel-cases, common to all of them, and supplying water to each of said water-wheels independently, substantially as described.

t. The combination of a turbine waterwheel upon an independent sleeve shaft which has a thrust-bearing, with a shaft passing through said sleeve-shaft and containing one or more turbine water-wheels and with a clutch uniting said shafts, a wheel-case containing said turbine wheel and a draft-tube into which said water-wheel discharges its water.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 27th day of July, 1899.

JOHN '1. FANNING. In presence of A. 0. PAUL, A. F. HOLMES. 

